The present disclosure relates to machinery required for winding stator core coils for dynamoelectric machines. In particular, the disclosure relates to transferring stator cores between stator winding apparatus, securing core winding shrouds to cores, and releasing the shrouds from the cores. Known core winding systems may include apparatus for conveying cores to and from machinery, load/unload devices for transferring cores between the conveyance apparatus and the winding machinery, and transfer devices for moving cores between various fixed stations of the winding machinery. Pallets and conveyors for this purpose are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,965,924 and 4,984,353, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. Fixed stations are often established for performing specialized tasks related to the assembly of the stator. For example, a winding apparatus may include a station for winding wire coils onto the core, a station for anchoring the ends of the wire to the wound core (e.g., to anchoring devices or terminal connectors), and a station for transferring the wound core back to the conveyance apparatus.
Cores are often supported at winding or other assembly stations using a housing mounted on a transfer device. Known housings for this purpose are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,969,606 and 5,137,221, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. Known housings can be difficult to attach and detach with respect to stator transfer devices and are often inefficiently coordinated with other specialized winding components such as transfer devices, shroud locking devices, and load/unload devices.
Wire coils for some cores may be wound using wire delivering needles moved in translational and rotational motion. Examples of such winders are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,835, in commonly assigned U.S. Provisional Patent Applications Nos. 60/148,473, filed Aug. 12, 1999, and 60/214,218, filed Jun. 23, 2000, and in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/632,281, filed Aug. 4, 2000, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
Winding shrouds are often used to guide wire delivered by the needles so turns of the coils can be properly positioned around the poles of the cores. Such winding shrouds are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,908, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Winding shrouds may be installed on a core prior to winding, held in place during winding, and removed after winding.
Multiple large machines occupying valuable floor space are often used to perform various operations involved in winding cores, such as shroud installation and removal, coil winding, coil termination, and stator transfer between stations. It is often difficult to coordinate the different operations. Machines must be arranged and their actions coordinated to avoid interfering with each other. Some machines, left idle while others finish performing a prerequisite assembly function, are underutilized. Slower machines reduce assembly line throughput. The numerous moving parts typically employed by the winding machinery are difficult to maintain and prone to failure.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide stator core winding apparatus and methods that reduce the space required to wind a stator core.
It would also be desirable to provide stator core winding apparatus and methods that reduce the number of separate machines and operations required to wind a stator core.
It is an object of the invention to provide stator core winding apparatus and methods that reduce the space required to wind a stator core.
It is also an object of the invention to provide stator core winding apparatus and methods that reduce the number of separate machines and operations required to wind a stator core.
In accordance with the principles of the invention, apparatus and methods for transferring dynamoelectric machine stator cores between assembly stations and for moving winding shrouds between stators may be provided. The apparatus may include a support member that may be rotated around an axis of rotation. The apparatus may include two stator support portions, each extending obliquely away from the axis. The support may be rotated to transfer stator cores between assembly stations. In some embodiments, the support member may have distal portions to which removable stator support housings may be attached. In some of these embodiments, the housings may project away from the distal portion in a direction leading away from the axis of rotation.
Some embodiments of the invention may provide apparatus and methods for securing ends of wire leads of dynamoelectric machine stators and transferring said stators between stator assembly apparatus and a stator conveyance system may also be provided. Some of these embodiments may include a wire lead anchoring device, a stator transfer device, and a stator load/unload device. The transfer device may transfer a wound stator to a position between the anchoring device and the load/unload device.
These embodiments may include a movable support structure, stator grippers, and a winding shroud retention device. The stator grippers and winding shroud retention devices may be fixed to the support structure. The winding shroud retention device may remove winding shrouds from a wound stator, retain the shrouds for use with a subsequent stator, and insert them in the subsequent stator after the apparatus delivers the subsequent stator to a winding station. In some embodiments, the invention may include a static winding shroud installation device for application of shrouds to one end of a stator and a dynamic, multipurpose transfer device for application of shrouds to the opposite end of a stator. In some of these embodiments, the multipurpose device may transfer stator cores between winding apparatus stations or between stations and conveyance devices.